"The Best Movie of 2020"...?

Birds of Prey (And The Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)...was in theaters for a month & a half. It had an R-rating, which kept kids from seeing it, unless accompanied by their parents; it had a limited budget, which meant the nature of the plot would be kept on a street-level, with little room for spectacle; the budget kept the wardrobe from access to creating elaborate superhero costumes; and it had a terrible trailer, fronting toxic misandry disguised as "woke" feminism. For a movie based on DC Comics characters, it performed below expectations, but two curious things happened this week that got people talking about it again. First, this Gamespot article:

    I usually confuse them with                             Game Stop.

Second, it has a better score on Rotten Tomatoes than Wonder Woman 1984:

I usually don't set up my conclusion this far after the intro, but the point I'm going to make is that I enjoyed Birds of Prey, but...to say it's the "Best Movie of The Year" has me wondering if there were any movies we missed before handing this movie that distinction, or, given everything that's happened in 2020, should this ranking be valid. Actually, there will be an Academy Awards presentation next year, so that point is moot; it's very likely that most of the films up for consideration will be films that debuted on streaming services...

  Begun..the Streaming War has..

As for the Birds of Prey characters and how they were depicted in the film..that team has gone through several incarnations in a short time. It began with just Oracle & Black Canary, with occasional appearances from Catwoman & Huntress, but also Male DC Comics characters like Robin, Nightwing and Blue Beetle. The 2002 live-action WB Network TV series debuted just before the comic book had even hit the five-year mark; I remember TV Guide critic Matt Roush dissed the series in just one sentence: "..a mechanical superhero dud that squanders its nifty premise with bad writing & acting." Yikes. Regardless, the comic book continued after that show evaporated, but the notion of having the Huntress be a core member of the team was incorporated into the comics when Gail Simone took over as writer after series co-creator Chuck Dixon left.

As a series, the comic has come a long way from essentially being a riff on Charlie's Angels, but has always been a middling success; in terms of sales, not as well as Batman or Justice League, more like Green Arrow or Hawkman, but better than Aquaman & Wonder Woman, popularity of Jason Mamoa & Gal Gadot notwithstanding. The most successful eras of the book were when Chuck Dixon was writing it in the early years, followed by the first couple years of Gail Simone's run. That was within the first 8 years. It has faltered creatively, been cancelled and relaunched several times the following decade, even rebranded as "Batgirl and The Birds of Prey" after Barbara Gordon, who had been Oracle after "The Killing Joke", became Batgirl again after regaining the use of her legs. The addition of Harley Quinn was inspired by the movie...and, contrary to longtime Birds of Prey fan opinions, I think her presence gives the book a lift - she becomes the straw that stirs the drink; people hate that she replaced Barbara, but I always found Barbara as Oracle to be a boring character. As inpirational & aspirational as Barbara is, whether as Batgirl or Oracle...being Oracle is a desk job. It's just endless panels of a woman sitting at a desk, facing computer screens. I will suggest that this allows for more identification with the audiences who love the character or can relate to her being in a wheelchair, but that's it. When James Tynion had Barbara reprise her role as Oracle, it was a miracle she wasn't put back in a wheelchair again..it just feels like the well has run dry, creatively, in comics right now.

Back to the movie. It is a weakness of it that you can find fan art on the internet that does a better job of outfitting Jurnee Smollett-Bell & Mary Elizabeth Winstead with wardrobe bearing a stronger resemblance to the comic book Black Canary & Huntress, but I thought the actresses made the most of what little they had to do, actually clocking in the same amount of time they usually get in the comic books. Cassandra Cain is not the same character from the comics, but I have noticed recent appearances of the comic book Cassandra incorporate elements of the film version's characterization, though I'm sure her hard core fans are apt to disagree.

Than there's Renee Montoya. This character had an interesting evolution: she starts off as a supporting character created for the 90's Batman cartoons, is then incorporated into the comic books..and then she becomes a new female incarnation of Steve Ditko's vigilante The Question. For this film, screenwriter Christina Hodson went back to the police officer incarnation of the character, offering a different take on her departure from the Gotham Police Department. I liked Rosie Perez, here, but I recall critics thought all of her scenes - and all the scenes with the Male cops in the precinct (her character is the only female cop present) - were cliches. With Batman, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock kept far offscreen, Montoya is going to be the only good cop in Gotham, a city long-established as being controlled by gangsters, where very few cops & politicians are good - everyone is either shady or looking out for themselves. Given this status quo, it tracks that Montoya would be manic - her only ally at the police department being the female District Attorney, which is a tenuous relationship, because she's her ex-girlfriend. Events play out understandably.

                

Now's as good a time as any to drop my theories about Renee Montoya's presence in this film: I'm watching the scene where Montoya is inexplicably chasing Harley Quinn through the "Pinata Alley" of the Toy District section of downtown Los Angeles, subbing for fictional Gotham City (this is the infamous "Egg Sandwich" scene; given the fuss for fried chicken sandwiches in 2019, this doesn't seem ludicrous to me)...and I'm thinking the chase dosen't make sense...unless it was intended for a different character to be chasing Harley Quinn...

I'm aware that the screenplay went through multiple rewrites. Batgirl was set to appear in this film at one point, until the studio executives decided to aim for having this film be R-rated, because "Joker" was also going to be rated R, but they mandated a core member of Batman's "family" was not going to be in an R movie, so I believe most of the Montoya scenes exist in an earlier draft, in a different context, with Batgirl instead. It would've been Barbara investigating the myterious vigilante (Huntress) who was killing mobsters, randomly chasing Harley through Pinata Alley, forming the team with Huntress, Canary & Cassandra at the end, surviving from getting shot by wearing Harley Quinn's bullet-proof bustier (I'm convinced that's a callback to TKJ)...and having her costume reduced to tatters, which I believe to be a callback to two different sources: a Batgirl arc in "Batman Confidential" where her simple costume is slowly picked apart during multiple brawls in long caper with Catwoman:

And in the 90's Batman cartoon episode, "Harley's Holiday", in which socialite Veronica Vreeland's designer outfit is not able to endure a long day of keeping up with Harley Quinn's antics:

The tone of the film reminded me a lot of "Harley's Holiday" and "Harliquinade" - two Harley Quinn-centric episodes of the 90's series in which Harley's antics leave a trail of destruction, played purely for laughs.

 Black Mask, a 3rd-tier Batman villain similar to Two-Face, with a different psychosis and creepier film noir-esque origin, fares worse than the gangster "Boxy", whose nightclubs get trashed whenever Quinn paid a visit; he's lucky to not suffer the fate of Black Mask in the film - blown up by hand grenade; after all, it was a cartoon for kids! Victor Zsasz is just a stooge in this film, but further proof of why I'm convinced Batgirl was going to be in this is she fought Zsasz before - memorably, for a moment where she pours salt in his open scars:

                       Nice.

So...I thought the movie was good. Definitely would've loved it more with Batgirl, but as-is, we got a live-action, poorly-marketed, farcical crossover that was likely meant to launch a spinoff series but didn't, because the fanbase was either too young to be allowed to buy tickets or miffed by uninspired, lazy, pandering marketing. It's an R-rated live-action film in the spirit of a 90's Batman cartoon (and early-90's superhero films, really), but would probably be downgraded to PG if you compare it to the far-edgier "Harley Quinn" series that debuted on the defunct DC Universe streaming service, but will continue on HBOMax. Barely a year later and it's become quaint..

Batman: Three Jokers

   I like those free playing cards...I 

  noticed nobody's talked about     them..

DC Comics' seems to be on the verge of planning a funeral for itself...how many more paroxysms can it take within a single decade? There's a rumor that 2021 might be the year that longtime fans might want to consider dusting off the free black armbands that were bundled with copies of Superman #75 from 1992 and I'll leave it at that:

           Who invited Darkseid?

I must note how some of the ongoing storylines have a weird, metaphorical quality; Scott Snyder's incomprehensible mini-series, Dark Knights: Death Metal, revealed that Batman and Superman are cadavers, keeping themselves alive to fight 'till the fight is won with mystic paraphernalia, to put it simply. In the main Batman book, Batman is acting oddly out-of-character, leaving his entire fortune in the hands of Lucius Fox, an employee, albeit a trusted one, via a conservatorship, but this is all preamble to establish one of Lucius' sons becoming the replacement Batman in an upcoming storyline, rather than heir apparents Dick Grayson or Barbara Gordon or his own son, Damian...well, it's your money, Bruce.

Let's get to the real meat among the potatoes: having finished reading Batman: Three Jokers, it is my belief that this mini-series is the last good Batman comic book we are going to see for a long time, if ever again. I'm not really writing this in stone by putting that statement in bold italics, but it feels that way right now; if there are any good Batman comics forthcoming...it's all gravy to me; I can't really see anything as good as, or better, than this mini-series; I don't believe it was intended as a finale or last Batman comic, but...I'm not sure we'll see anything better. We'll see, right? Meanwhile, I mean it with sincerity that this was the best Batman comic I've read since Mad Love. And I enjoyed it more than The Killing Joke. More on this in a bit..

Years ago, I remember an editorial from an issue of Comic Buyers Guide that described 2 types of Batman vs The Joker stories:

1) The Joker steals the Batmobile:

   🎶 And the Joker got away! 🎶

2) The Joker tortures Batman over a pot of tea:

   🎶A cuppa' arsenic, some tea    and you..🎶 

Three Jokers was teased as being like the first, but is really more like the latter. The tease came from scenes in 2 crossovers that are not particularly required reading:

                         This.

                       And this.

Eventually followed by the formal announcement:

Why wasn't this used as the cover art for the hardcover collection?

When it became clear the mini-series was going to be a sequel to The Killing Joke, everyone wondered if this was going to stick the landing. I'm not a big fan of Killing Joke, though I'm aware every dark take on Batman and The Joker takes it's cues from that story; fans of Oracle hate it, even though it's the only reason Barbara Gordon remained in a wheelchair, as a callback to that story. And Alan Moore is no fan of it:

 I saw that movie...Barbara is probably the only normal person Batman had a relationship with.

              Hey...Batgirl's hot.

                   This tracks.

The only scene I like is that whole "speech" Batman gives at the beginning - variations of which have been pastiched for decades since:

 I played with the lighting on this shot to make it readable; I dislike how Bolland recolored everything in the reprints. 

So, Three Jokers is revealed to be a sequel in that it changes the fate of a character that appeared in The Killing Joke...technically, 2 characters, really. Aside from that twist, the real focus is on the psyche of the 3 heroes featured: Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood - Batman's ethics & morality, Batgirl's ambivalence and Red Hood's neuroses. Each of the 3 Jokers correspond with each hero in different ways; the Clown has the same capacity for violent impulses as Red Hood; the Criminal is as ambivalent and pragmatic as Barbara; the Comedian, like Batman, holds more cards than he lets on and plays them close. 

Jason Fabok's artwork  is fantastic, Geoff Johns scripts are his most deftly-crafted; this is a love-letter to the pre-Knightfall Batman comic books of the late-80's - early-90's, right before Batman: The Animated Series began to permanently set the style; there's a nearly-forgotten era of deceptively simple, gothic tales by Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle, Marv Wolfman, Peter Milligan, Jim Aparo, Jim Starlin, Christopher Priest and Dennis O'Neil in the ongoing issues of Batman, Detective Comics and Legends of The Dark Knight, read by many who were brought into comic shops by the success of the 1989 Batman film, where the stories were told from a street-level/rooftop-level perspective, and the ethos of the film's story structure seemed to be echoed by the writers and artists. It was a golden time to be reading Batman comics. It's an amazing triumph for Three Jokers. It even offers a happy ending! There's a punchline for you...

It was better than good...better than good enough..

#WomensHistoryMonth: #Batgirl

March is officially Women's History Month, so I'll write some thoughts on Batgirl, specifically Barbara Gordon, along with some thoughts on that "Batgirl" movie that's been in-development for some time now..this will be useful, for as of late, people who don't read comic books confuse her with Batwoman, who has her own TV show, but is an altogether different character.

SHE is the most iconic Batgirl. I think this distinction has a lot to do with being created in the 1960s, during the Women's Movement, so even though she was created for a TV series, you have this intelligent, educated woman, who has this quiet career as a librarian, implying Library Science was her major in college, but displaying talents that infer she took minors in engineering, chemistry, fashion design, computer science, political science, criminology, physics, criminal justice, psychology, philosophy, motorcycle maintenance & repair, gymnastics and martial arts. She took a lot of classes - ergo, she has a lot of class.

She was MacGyver before there was a MacGyver.

And of all the action heroes, what MacGyver lacked in wit he made up for in his talent for building crude, yet intricate and effective gadgets out of whatever ordinary items were at hand. In the Batman TV series and in comics, Batgirl's arsenal and motorcycle were depicted as equal in appearance to Batman's assortment of gadgetry, but I think a modern interpretation of this distinction between someone using homespun equipment and another using materials manufactured upon request via special order would be rendered more obvious...you'd see the wires, the nuts & bolts, the framework, the things found here & there, etc..

This could be why I'm ambivalent about Batgirl: Year One. Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty's re-imagining of Barbara's earliest adventures, told within the context of stories from the 1990s - lots of foreshadowing the Birds of Prey stories and eventual retirement and emergence as Oracle - reads like a comedy of errors. Modern Age Barbara Gordon didn't know what she was doing when she was Batgirl - that's the conclusion we get from it, that and Dixon's Batman is a very manipulative human being, opting to watch from afar with spy cameras. It's also odd that Jim Gordon would be against his daughter being a police officer,  but turn a blind eye to her being Batgirl (assuming he's figured it out or hasn't)...that contradiction doesn't fit whichever incarnation of Jim Gordon they're using. I love Marcos Martin's artwork, though. The images are epic - they sing. The scene near the end, where Batgirl is brought into the fold by Batman & Robin near the gravesite of Bruce's parents is mythical..it's like she's been knighted. With not-so-subtle tweaking, this allusion is more on-the-nose..

The Batgirl of Batgirl: Year One couldn't be the same confident character who appears in all those Silver & Bronze Age tales recently compiled in a handy, oversized 2-volume omnibus:

This is the Barbara Gordon who became a congresswoman and relocated to Washington D.C., a popular era recently revisited in this ad for Snickers candy bars, created to coincide with Batman's 80th anniversary:

       Barbara "Ocasio" Gordon

In 1983, Barbara loses her re-election, due to her nocturnal activities keeping her distracted. Her adventures more bizarre and synthetic - the rogues gallery now includes voodoo shamans, snakewomen, mad scientists and cybercriminals. Reality is in flux because of the Crisis. She takes an early retirement sometime after appearing in public to deliver a eulogy for Supergirl:

           Supergirl got better.

Her retirement is short-lived after she is shot by the Joker in The Killing Joke. Paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, she languished for a time before becoming inspired to find a new way to put her knowledge and skills to use. She became Oracle.

As "Amy Beddoes", Barbara worked with Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad, then built a rep as an expert information specialist and computer hacker. She also functioned as a spymaster in all but name only by forming the Birds of Prey with Black Canary. Around the same time, she became a member of the Justice League when it's roster had ballooned to 16 members:

  She's the green face on the TVs..

It's gone on record that these accomplishments occurred during a three year period, longer than her two years as Batgirl, though in real time, both appeared in print roughly 20 years equidistantly. Presumably, Barbara had moved on and healed, mentally and spiritually, though she remained in the wheelchair...

There's an ongoing debate that this strained logic and character logic. As a fictional character, Barbara Gordon exists in a realm where her friends and allies have been depicted suffering from equally career-ending injury and death, yet have their fates reversed, either by magic or science fiction..yet she remains in the chair...presumably to please people in real-life who are disabled, who live vicariously through the character. Other characters assumed the Batgirl identity - Helena Bertinelli, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown...curiously, Barbara continued to appear as Batgirl outside the main continuity, in cartoons, tie-in comics to the cartoons, video games and other merchandise. In 2011, she became Batgirl again as part of a major line-wide revamp, referred to as New52 ('52' being the number of titles launched as the lineup premiered...I suspect any future stunt like this will be 'New20' based on recent circumstances). To this day, fans of Oracle hate this..but it would be tasteless to strip away a character's ability because they liked them better in a wheelchair. It has nothing to do so much with the quality of the writing now, but that they really want her back in a wheelchair. If they thought Barbara Gordon was a more realistic and interesting character as Oracle, then how realistic would it be to imagine a person in real-life willingly go back to being in a wheelchair after regaining mobility simply because everyone around her said, "We liked you better in the wheelchair." Tasteless. Utterly tasteless.

Futher exacerbating things is that there's an untold story yet to be told...the tale of how Barbara Gordon went from contentment to uncertainty - enough to realize she hadn't moved on and that there was more to do, so much more, but not as Oracle..

We're left to speculate...maybe she felt guilt about dispatching other heroes into dangerous work on her behalf? Maybe she was in denial about her contentment? Perhaps the playing field had changed and she became disenchanted with her lot..am I describing a mid-life crisis? An existential crisis? We don't know. It was an editorial decision that wasn't given a story to carry it, just sketchy details. We know she underwent surgery (presumably funded by Bruce Wayne - it pays to know somebody with money) to have a bionic microchip implanted in her spinal cord. She didn't gain superpowers - she's not The Bionic Batgirl - she's just back to how she was before she was shot by Joker. Welcome Back, Barbara.

So..in the face of grumbling adversity from people hanging on to the past, through some incredible luck, Barbara's comeback in DC's continuity has gone on for 9 years..and there's a movie in development.

Now, here is where I let my imagination take over. I'm going to imagine a plot for a live-action "#BatgirlMovie". I'm assuming Christina Hodson's script is done and in the drawer, but I heard a rumor that the villain of the film is Bane..

..and Cassandra Cain might be in this, having already been introduced in the Birds of Prey movie and having the same screenwriter, so Batgirl would be set in the same universe, separate from Matt Reeves' The Batman with Robert Pattinson. I don't mind this decision - Warner Brothers doesn't have a Kevin Feige to keep the trains running on time, so I'd rather just movies and not...a syllabus.

  I know that's not Ella Jay Basco.

  The image is too convenient to

  not use.

I'm guessing Hodson's story could be inspired by Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse, in reverse. Never mind why I would think that - Babs and Cass team-up to fight Bane. That would make them a new Dynamic Duo - not exactly Batman & Robin...more like The Green Hornet & Kato..

Full disclosure...if you're following this blog, you already know I've been rooting for actress Lily Collins to play Batgirl for some time now, after Hailee Steinfeld, Felicity Jones and Alexandra Daddario's careers kinda cooled-down, whereas Collins kept giving good performances in roles that continue to show her range. She's more interesting. 

         She is Barbara Gordon

Okay...the film's plot is that "lost" untold Batgirl tale - how Barbara chose to be Batgirl. Maybe she's non-committal and has other obligations...like running for Congress. That's right. This movie is set during an election year.

My take on Barbara in this film is that she's suffering from imposter syndrome coupled with post-traumatic stress disorder - she has already undergone the surgery and regained her mobility, but she hasn't revealed this in public, only her father knows..and Bruce Wayne. In public, she's still wheelchair-bound and she's in a state where that feels more comforting and the microchip feels like a false-promise. In the meantime, she's been going out on patrol as Batgirl in milk runs. Her costume during this part should be an original design that resembles her current costume from the comics, plus nods to Yvonne Craig...

Meanwhile, Cassandra Cain is on a new misadventure. The news media is reporting that Batgirl has returned after a lengthy absence. Cass, a former protege of Harley Quinn turned Bird of Prey, suspects that Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, so....(and this is my next big leap in logic, here) she breaks into Barbara's apartment during the day and - as is this incarnation of Cassandra Cain is apt to do - steals Barbara's Batgirl costume after discovering the hidden room built in Barbara's apartment (another Yvonne Craig nod). When Barbara returns to her apartment, she discovers the theft and follows in hot pursuit into the night, quickly donning her Batgirl of Burnside outfit, only to discover that Cass has made alterations to the costume she stole...

The Burnside costume, for this film story I'm imagining, is the "Year One" outfit Barbara made for herself. When she catches up to Cassandra, the girl laughs at what Barbara has resorted to wearing, until Barbara confides that this is the costume she wore on her first adventure...and cue the extended flashback featuring Killer Moth...

   And that's how you showcase 2

   villains in one film!

Cass is impressed. Barbara reveals that she's familiar with Cass' exploits with the Birds and offers to let her have the costume she stole if she earns it by helping her on a case...Killer Moth is back in Gotham, only he's working for Bane stealing components for a big, catastrophic stunt...and this time, Moth has henchmen of his own - The Jawbreakers..

   This is my excuse to include a        wild chase scene that shows off

  Batgirl's motorcycle driving.

The components stolen seem connected to the chemical formula for venom...along with the chemical compound found in the Lazarus Pit...

Here's my idea for explaining why Batman is nowhere in sight in this movie..as well as how Bane fits into this puzzle...Batman is on a secret mission, investigating the League of Assassins:

As for Bane, he's trying to curry favor with the leader of the League...

You might've guessed what I'm up to, here...while the events of Batgirl are unfolding, Batman is battling Ra's Al Ghul, while Bane is trying to enter the League's ranks with a big, catastrophic stunt that would get Ra's attention..

I figure the reason Bane is the alleged main villain in Hodson's script is because it increases dramatic effect - Barbara just got her mobility back and her first major adversary is the guy who broke Batman:

                       Yikes!

It's perfect. Going back to what I wrote about this being like Spiderverse in reverse, my thoughts are that Cass would have picked up considerable fighting skills and experience points since the last time we saw her, so she would be thrilled to spar with the Bat-breaker. Barbara, on the other hand, wants to nail down the details of Bane's plan and solve that puzzle, first. Part of my understanding of what makes Barbara tick is that the war on crime is like a puzzle that can be solved. Naturally, she's always been more interested in the research & analysis element of crime-stopping. So this female Green Hornet & Kato briefly squabble and split-up, just as Barbara uses her considerable Detective abilities to deduce Bane's secret of the ooze...

  Pictured, from l-r: Killer Moth,     Bane. Of course.

It's at this point where Barbara experiences a flashback to the day/night she decided she wanted to regain her mobility/get out of the wheelchair. It's the next big leap in the narrative..I figure it's going to take a page out of the Stan Lee playbook..some simple incident in which Barbara felt responsible - she could've done something to save someone - not another superhero/vigilante, but maybe an average person fallen victim to a crime that Barbara witnessed. A mugging in the park. A holdup at a grocery store. A holdup at a bank. Something along those lines. She could defend herself, she could stop the perp, she could've saved the victim, but this time, to do all of the above, she needed to be extra. She needed to be Batgirl again. 

   I wouldn't mind the film title be      "Batgirl Again", but it would only   make sense after seeing the film.

A few days pass. Babs and Cass pursue separate angles of the investigation. This is a montage juxtaposed with scenes of Babs pondering if her priorities are stretched thin, what with her congressional aspirations and the new costume she's working on. Incidentally, Bane is the politician she's running up against. The incarnation of Bane being used is allegedly the one from the comics, who wears a full  luchadore mask that hides his face and only bulks up when he activates the venom pump apparatus strapped to his back, so this reveal raises the stakes more. Bane is going to control and entrap Gotham from different angles. He's introduced his 'Ooze' as a "safe" performance-enhancing drug in the streets AND wants to use a position as an elected official to lobby for it's legalization, but the mystical properties within the drug are actually enacting an incantation that will wipe out everyone instantly after the number of sacrificials users reaches its quota. Hence, Bane's Master Plan: it's a mystic countdown to a Day of The Dead. Madre dios!

The final act is set at Gotham Airport, where Bane has his "Lazarus Venom" laboratory set up.  Cass arrives first, but is ambushed by all the villains. Fortunately, Barbara arrives, wearing a new costume...and it's the one Jim Lee designed for her New52 comeback that was also used in the video games..

All hell breaks loose. Batgirl & Batgirl versus Killer Moth, the Jawbreakers and Bane. It just escalates to heights of absurdity that show off the budget. Cass pilots Bane's escape jet while Barbara fights Bane ontop of the plane (because the plane had the largest shipment of Bane's Lazarus Venom, which he was going to dump in Gotham's water supply in revenge for having just lost the election...of course). Barbara realizes she doesn't have to be stronger physically than Bane to defeat him - she uses all her gadgets to give Bane sensory overload, giving him a massive stroke from overexertion from being juiced up. Cass safely lands the plane back at the airport. Both Batgirls have triumphed.

On January, a few months later, Babs is settling in to her office in Washington, DC. It is shown that she is no longer hiding her regained mobility from everyone and is not using the wheelchair anymore. In Gotham City, Cassandra, in her Batgirl suit, sees the Batsignal light up in the sky and proceeds to swing over rooftops with a grapple gun towards it to "answer the call"...in Washington D.C., another Batsignal lights up the sunset sky above the Wahington Monument..and we see Barbara in costume, riding her Batcycle towards it. Both Batgirls are active and still at work. The End.

So that's how I picture the film playing out, given the actress I'm rooting for as the lead, with the rumored villain alleged by a website not known as a reliable source, but with the only news I've heard in months, with a potential co-lead vaguely hinted at by the screenwriter.

One thing for sure, one certainly I can guarantee will happen when this film gets rolling...

...is that when Chef Boyardee puts Batgirl back on their cans of pasta featuring the DC Comics superheroes, she'll appear full-size in the foreground, not itty-bitty-sized in the bottom corner...